Joan L. Cummiskey

Joan Cummiskey, age 92, died in her Gloucester home on February 26, 2025. Joan lived an incredibly full and rich life and retained her vibrant and beaming spirit right to the end.
Joan was predeceased by her lifelong companion and husband of 54 years, Joseph Kenneth (Ken) Cummiskey. Joan and Ken grew up in Belmont, Massachusetts and met at the local pool, where Ken was a lifeguard. Ken was smitten from the beginning and proposed on their third date. But Joan took her time responding and first finished nursing school at Boston City Hospital. Two years after they met, they were married and packed up their car and headed for Sweet Home, Oregon, which would prove to be the start of a life defined by jumping into new opportunities and adventures.
The next ten years in Oregon were a whirlwind, with the birth of her two children, Lynn Anne Maguire and David Ross Cummiskey, and Ken teaching, coaching, and studying for his PhD at Stanford. As things settled down, and Ken received tenure, they maintained their connections with New England, driving cross-country every summer and visiting the national park along the way.
In the 1960s, while they were volunteering for a summer at the Passamaquoddy reservation in Maine, they decided to learn more about President Kennedy's newly formed Peace Corps. It matched their peace activist spirit and they shifted directions, applied, and were hired as staff in 1965. This began a new stage of their lives living first in Washington DC, and next in Morocco for two years, and yes, with two kids. When they finished their tour of service, they returned to Washington DC and then Falls Church, Virginia, where Ken worked in a series of higher education positions and Joan worked as a "floater nurse" at hospitals. She also worked as a lobbyist for Common Cause. Joan and Ken were politically active with many organizations, including the ACLU (which they first joined in 1953), the League of Women Voters, and they were early supporters of Ralph Nader's consumer rights group, Public Citizen.
In 1971, Joan and Ken moved to Henniker, New Hampshire to work for New England College. Ken was first Vice President and Dean of the Faculty and in 1973 was elevated to College President. Over the next 10 years, Joan was indispensable managing the endless events that are essential to leading a college. Joan was his anchor, and Ken would not have succeeded without Joan's steady, beaming, and unflappable spirit. While there, in her late 40s, Joan also enrolled in the college and earned a degree in psychology.
When Ken retired, they moved full-time to Rust Island in Gloucester, Massachusetts. A few years earlier they had already begun their new passion of sailing the coast of New England, covering ground from Martha's Vineyard to Grand Mannan, Canada. They were intrepid on their Sabre 28' sailboat and would often cruise for three weeks at a time with their dog Bingo. During these years, especially during the winters, they would often visit Lynn and her girls in Las Vegas. In addition to staying with Lynn and her family, they also loved staying on Lynn's Catalina 43' sailboat in San Diego.
When still in the Washington DC area, they joined the local Unitarian Universalist congregation and learned about the UU Conference Center on Star Island, which is part of the Isles of Shoals off the coast of New Hampshire. Star Island hosts week-long themed summer conferences, and with their political activist spirits, they were especially attracted to the International Affairs Conference. They started attending in 1969 and were committed IA "shoalers" for the rest of their lives. Both Ken and Joan have served as IA conference chair and on the Star Island Corporation and developed lifelong friendships on the Island. Their two kids and grandkids have attended the IA conference for years, and four of their grandchildren worked on the island during the summers. Joan attended the International Affairs Conference for her final time last summer and she will be dearly missed this coming July.
Joan's parents moved to Belmont, Massachusetts from Canada. Her father Fred Ross was from New Brunswick and her mother Jessie MacDonald Ross was from Nova Scotia. Joan's 1950 Belmont High School yearbook said that she "lives for those Canadian summers" where she often worked on a farm. Years later, Joan's mother bought a small summer house on Caribou Island in Pictou, Nova Scotia, which Joan inherited. She continued her high school tradition of spending some summertime in Nova Scotia until she was 90, and in her final years was usually accompanied by her cousin, Evelyn, or her granddaughter Kelly Maguire.
Since Ken died in 2007, Joan continued to live on Rust Island and developed a wonderful community of friends, the "Ladies of the Island" and they would regularly gather for morning coffee, go on outings, and out for monthly lunches. Joan would also stay for extended periods of time visiting Lynn in Nevada or David in Maine. She continued to travel, taking trips with Lynn, and sometimes on her own, with Grand Circle or Overseas Adventure Travel. She especially loved indulging her passion for birding in Costa Rica. It is a testament to Joan's welcoming, non-judgmental, and loving spirit that over the past ten years, three of her grandchildren have lived with her in Gloucester for extended periods of time. Her granddaughter Kelly has lived with her and cared for her for the past seven years.
Joan has forged deep and lasting relationships everywhere she lived. Joan and Ken loved to travel and always made friends wherever they went. It must have been their combination of enthusiasm, curiosity, and an overflowing love of life.
Joan is survived by her daughter, Lynn, and her daughters, Jessie and Kelly; Lynn's stepchildren, Aaron, Jessica, and Sarah, and eight great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild. She is also survived by her son, David and his wife Vanessa and their children, Luke, Owen, and Suki, and two more great-grandchildren.
Joan will be deeply missed by her family and friends.
A celebration of Joan's life is planned for IA week on Star Island this summer.
The family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to Pathways for Children, 29 Emerson Road, Gloucester MA 01930 (www.pw4c.org) or to Star Island Annual Fund, 10 Vaughan Mall, Suite 8, Worth Plaza, Portsmouth, NH 03801 (www.starisland.org)
Arrangements by Greely Funeral Home, 212 Washington Street, Gloucester, MA 01930
For online condolences please visit www.greelyfuneralhome.com